I'll start off with a tried and true recipe here, from Rytek Kutas' book "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing". I have personally made this recipe and it is outstanding! A bit on the messy side when you are preparing it, but well worth it.

Honey Cured Bacon

1 cup kosher salt

insta-cure number 1

2 cups honey

The formula above will cure about one slab of bacon. The insta-cure and salt are mixed together and then rubbed thoroughly into the pork belly.

After rubbing, the honey is poured over the bacon and distributed evenly (the messy part). Put bacon in a large resealable plactic bag, or vacuum seal it if possible. Place the coated bacon in the fridge at 38ºF for six days, turning it and gently kneading it once a day.

After 6 days remove the bacon from the cooler and wash it very well with lukewarm water. Let the bacon dry for 30 minutes at room temperature. This is where I differ with Rytek on procedure...he tells you to take it straight to the smoker after drying...I say "do a fry pan test or you'll be sorry"! Cut a piece of bacon and fry it up...check for saltiness. You may want to soak it for an hour os so with a couple of water changes. Now back to Rytek: Take the bacon to the smoker which has been preheated to 135º and hold it in the smokehouse until it is dry, with the dampers wide open. Dampers are then closed to ¼ open, applying smoke, and held until bacon's internal temp is 127º-128ºF.

Reduce temperatur of smoker to 120º and hold until desired color is obtained. Remove bacon and place in refrigerator overnight before slicing.

Please be sure you use hickory wood for the smoke for this bacon.

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There are more recipes to follow....buckboard bacon, Canadian bacon, and perhaps even pancetta...please check back for updates.

Your refering to Rytek Kutas, the Owner (Isn't he Dead?) of the Sausage maker company in Buffalo NY...

I have what is Refered to as "The Bible" that was done by him many years ago...It is loned out right now to my Father-In-Law's Brother..

In it, there are many recipes for bacon and I do not remember that 1...

What book is that out of?

I know of many on another Site who Should take the time and look him up and Read what he has printed..

They have made comments about the Sodium Nitires and Nitrates and that they never use them...I've told all of them more then a few times what can happen if those 2 sodiums are not used when needed, but they pass it off..

I REFUSE to make ANYTHING that is going to go into my Smoker without what the Recipe calls from in 1 of the Soudiums!

If I come across a Recipe that does not call for it and calls for smokeing, I will never use it or I add the Sodium to it per the teaspoon per pound of meat!

I Will NEVER Put Family and Friends thru a risk of Food Poisoning from not using it...not using it is gambling with a Bacteria that can have Dreaded Results!

You would not happen to have a recipe for Maple Cured Bacon and hams, would you?

A Buddy and I are trying to find a Maple Cured Bacon and ham recipe...his Mom and Dad used to raise many hogs per year and made maple cured bacon and hams and sold them at the Broad Street Farmers Market in Harrisburg Pennsylvania.

He has looked thru all his Mom and Dad's old recipe books and can not find the maple cured recipe anywhere.

I've tried searchs for it thru Google and have yet to come up with a recipe (Yeah watch, you or someone else will find it thru Google in a matter of Seconds! Always goes that way for me..I can never find it, but let someone else who understands the secrets to Google and they have it in Seconds!)

Hoser, that's a pretty good recipe, I've used it myself on many occassions, and other than changing the variety of the wood chips I used in the smoker I've not seen any reason to change the basic recipe. I've used apple, cherry, hickory, and maple chips and they've all come out pretty good.

Yes indeed Woody...it is the book by the late Rytek. I've always found that bacon recipe to be a very good and simple one. I have made maple cured bacon, but not any ham as yet. For the maple bacon, I simply sustituted maple sugar, and some very thick grade B maple syrup. I'll see if I can dig up the exact recipe and post it for you guys. It's getting to be bacon smoking weather out here in New England.

Hey Andy, go to a smaller local grocery store and talk to the meat man (or lady). They will usually order it for you if they don't have it, as Dave said. Plus once you get to know them, and they learn of your interest in cooking etc, they will square you away on specials, deals and hold back some cuts for you as they sell out. I've also shared some smoking tips and recipes (finishing sauces) with my meat dept folks, as well as taken them all a jar or two of my salsas and they do appreciate it. They love to know how their meats are being used and cooked, plus they give me a heads-up on any specials coming around.

Just catching up on some older posts...this was originally posted over at SMF...sorry if you've already seen it.

Well, found myself with a little extra time, pork bellies and butt this morning, so you know what happened.

Bacon times 3 is in the cure

Mixed up some Kosher salt, insta-cure, brown sugar and gave 'em a rub.

Then rubbed one with maple syrup, and the other with molasses, then vacuum sealed and in the fridge at 38 degrees.

Boned out the Butt to the best of my ability, and made the buckboard.
Used 1 cup of salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup
granulated garlic, and 1/3 cup freshly ground coarse black pepper.

I'm kind of anxious to see how the buckboard comes out...my first attempt at that.

I'll update the thread next week, after they're out of the smoker.OK...two days into the cure, and as far as I can tell, it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
Drawing the moisture out of the meat, and creating it's own brine to cure in.
Can hardly wait for Tuesday to smoke em up! <drool>

Bacon update

Okey-dokey
Got the bellies out of the cure, washed them down good and gave it a fry test.

Whoa! waaaay too salty...gave it a one hour soak with three water changes and let the pellicle build overnight...then into the gosm.

Ok...another overnight in the cooler, then out comes the waring pro
Maple syrup cured is looking fine
Molasses cured is a bit fattier, but ok.

All in all, very tasty bacon...the darker one here is the molasses cured.

Now the buckboard batch is soaking, to be smoked later this morning
I'll do a final update tomorrow, when the buckboard is sliced up and cooked up
Thanks for coming to look.

Sorry it took so long folks, I know I promised a final update
saturday, but it was just a crazy weekend.

Here is the buckboard, smoked up nicely in about 3 hours...took it to 142 just to be safe
I got out the trusty old Waring Pro and got down to business.
And the final test was per the wife...maple syrup cured with eggs and english muffin. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good.

Lessons learned:1.
After taste testing by family, and a chef friend it was determined that
the Maple syrup cure was a clear winner..this will be my go-to recipe
from now on with the possibility of some minor modifications.The
preferences went as follows:

2.
I have to find a way to cut down the salt in the initial cure
recipe..wound up soaking one batch over three hours and12 water changes
just to get it to where I could choke down the sample fry.Any suggestions? I only used a cup of salt, but man, was it powerful

3.Don't
bother putting pepper in the basic cure...only thing that came through
was the garlic and salt when testing the buckboard...more
experimentation is warranted ...time to try either pastrami or Canadian
bacon.

I would think a shorter cure time would do well. Maybe inject to get the cure distributed fully but then cut the days in a bag. I'm not sure. I have 2 bellies I need to do and am wondering what recipe to use. I have done ryteks buckboard before and liked it. Maybe your maple not to sure. Oh also is there a reason you have to use so much salt. Maybe just stick with the cure? I don't know but would like to hear your ideas as well. Maybe I will try it out for ya and see the results

I would think a shorter cure time would do well. Maybe inject to get the cure distributed fully but then cut the days in a bag. I'm not sure. I have 2 bellies I need to do and am wondering what recipe to use. I have done ryteks buckboard before and liked it. Maybe your maple not to sure. Oh also is there a reason you have to use so much salt. Maybe just stick with the cure? I don't know but would like to hear your ideas as well. Maybe I will try it out for ya and see the results

I just vacuum seal mine and leave them a week Jerod. I never tried injecting slab bacon, I like the way it comes out with just a rub and a slow cure. The amount of salt is strictly dictated by Rytek's original recipe for honey bacon. I figure you can always soak some of the salt out before you smoke it, but you just can't add any at the last minute.

I do the fry pan test, then if it needs it, give it a good soak with several water changes before letting the pellicle build up.

I also think that the vacuum sealer may be the main reason for the saltiness...since the vacuum actually pulls the salt into the meat, rather than being next to it and just wrapped up. I think next time I will indeed cut back the salt before vacuuming and see how it turns out.

i'm thinking hard about trying some buckboard bacon, using a 4-ish-pound boned-out shoulder. if i try it, i'll be using tenderquick, which has salt built in, and i'll see about a combination of brown sugar and maple-syrup or mapleine, which seemed to work pretty well during my canadian bacon experiment.

basically, it looks like doing this isn't much more different than the dried beef project that i did - which is pretty dang similar to ham. so then i gotta wonder - what's the difference, other than the body parts involved, between buckboard bacon and ham?

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Poking around some, it looks like CHEFROB gave a great answer over at www.smoked-meat.com almost a year ago:

a couple of years ago i would have said bacon is bacon or bacon is belly. after doing a lot of buckboard i have found that i can produce a bacon from butt that at times most could not tell what part of the pig it came from by butterflying and trimming. if i left it whole i get that "hammieness" that i am not looking for. i don't think you can use a cured and smoked hind quarter, slice it thin and fry it up and think it resembles bacon in any way. with out the fat streaking through it, it can't cook up crisp and give you the same flavor, texture, and mouth feel. i have not done a ham yet but i would venture to say that it can't take on the same amount of smoke as say a belly or butterflied butt due to the surface area vs. non surface area. with this in mind i think bacon tends to take on more characteristics and nuances of the different smokes from different woods as well and is just a plain smokier product. by the same token i feel that this is also what gives ham it's flavor definition by being having more cured meat than surface smoked meat. i think final preparation plays a roll as well as the specific cut involved, but i don't think you can take one of my BBB and stud it with cloves and pineapple rings (i never do this BTW) and pass that off as ham.

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Could you give me an idea of the weight of your "slab of bacon"? Is it in the 3 kilo/6.5 pound area? A bit heavier or lighter? I like making bacon, but have only done it a few times. I smoke mine on a Weber Kettle usually, though I have finished it by heating it until 150F internally in my oven without smoke. Thank you!

hoser will be along to answer your question as soon as possible. i wanted to drop a note welcoming you to the foods of the world forum, and i hope that you find your time here enjoyable ~

we're a pretty good crew here, and enjoy sharing what we've learned and learning more from each other. i see you're from the phillipines, and we're looking forward to learning how things are done there.

take care, and if you have any questions or concerns, just let us know -

ron

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Klahowya TakunkaWitko! I am a US citizen who retired and ran away to the Philippines. I enjoy some of the cuisine here but also miss some of mine. My wife, a Filipina from Cebu, loves to cook as well and is taking some culinary courses here in the Philippines. I am learning to smoke meat and barbecue while helping a brother-in-law who is getting his degree in restaurant management and learning basic culinary skills. Together we've learned to make bacon, do some sous vide cooking, and turn out some pretty decent old fashioned cranked ice cream. I hope to introduce him to this website as resource for learning more about the many cuisines found around the world.

Klahowya TakunkaWitko! I am a US citizen who retired and ran away to the Philippines. I enjoy some of the cuisine here but also miss some of mine. My wife, a Filipina from Cebu, loves to cook as well and is taking some culinary courses here in the Philippines. I am learning to smoke meat and barbecue while helping a brother-in-law who is getting his degree in restaurant management and learning basic culinary skills. Together we've learned to make bacon, do some sous vide cooking, and turn out some pretty decent old fashioned cranked ice cream. I hope to introduce him to this website as resource for learning more about the many cuisines found around the world.

Thank you for your very nice welcome.

Growing up my neighbors were Filipino. Man I used to love when they'd have BBQ parties. Marinated, thin-sliced short ribs and lumpias were my favorite! MMMM. I'd love to see some of your cooks and recipes.

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